Disclaimer: In Real Life is a platform for everyday people to share their experiences and voices. All articles are personal stories and do not necessarily echo In Real Life’s sentiments.
Taufiq is an entrepreneur who started his business on the first day of Raya in May 2020.
IRL reached out to him and asked if he’d like to share his story with us.
This is his story, told from his own perspective:
In 2019, I was overworked and underpaid
Hi, my name is Taufiq.
Just before I officially joined the fitness world, I was a customer service consultant for a telco company. I worked 5-6 days a week and each shift was 12 hours.
The job required a lot of standing and talking. After each work day, I was exhausted by the time I reached home. And the pay? The basic salary was RM2000. It was not even enough to cover my child’s school fees.
I felt that I deserved more. So one day, I quit that job and decided to try something I’m good at — fitness.
In early 2020, I secured a job as a Personal Trainer in a gymnasium. Not long after, MCO happened. The company told me they were closing all their gyms. As you might guess, I lost that job.
For the first time in my life, I was jobless with 1 young mouth to feed. My son was 4 that year.
The MCO left me high & dry
Picture: Cradling my 4-year old son as I worked
When I received the news, I was in shock. I was supposed to earn RM 3000 as a personal trainer. That amount of money could have paid my child’s school fees.
I used to think that I had to find my passion so I could make all the money I want and be happy. For over 10 years, I had tried to figure it out and wasted a lot of time, effort and tears.
Nonetheless, those 10 years armed me with a variety of skills.
After I lost the personal training job, there was a paradigm shift in my thinking. I told myself, “Forget passion. What am I actually good at?”
I listed down my key skill sets:
- Video editing
- Personal training (I’m a certified coach)
- Sales
- Communication skills
While I was stressed out on how to take care of my family, I began to notice some changes in the world around me.
Gyms had to close and people were freaking out that they could not exercise the usual way.
Furthermore, there were many people in Malaysia looking for ways to become fitter. They weren’t always properly guided, and there is a lot of misinformation out there, and many people were falling victim to it.
Thinking about this, I saw it as an opportunity, and an idea came to me: “What about I take my personal training online?”
And with that, I got to work.
I started an Instagram account
I came across the idea by googling personal trainers in Malaysia. At the start of the pandemic, I noticed that they were all doing group sessions. But none of them were really focused on educating and providing free advice to their customers.
So I started putting out fitness content on my IG page. I called myself Your Bro Taufiq (YBT). Because I was literally like your fitness bro just giving you free advice at the gym. The purpose of this channel was to help everyday Malaysians get fit from home.
With my experience in sales, I tailored my content to my targeted market, and slowly, I watched my following grow.
I started in May 2020. In the beginning, interest was small, but building slowly. I kept putting out content, mixing and matching ideas, testing the hashtags, researching my competitors to see how they curated their IG content.
My IG followers grew. In March 2020, I had about 1,700 followers on Instagram. Right now, I have about 33,000 followers.
To shoot my workout videos, I’d started with an iPhone 7 plus, then changed it after it became laggy. Nevertheless, any phone would serve this purpose.
Picture: This 51-year-old has lost 12kgs and is now fitter than her husband! When she first joined Taufiq, she was a student worried about her weight. But she didn’t give up and worked hard. She says that although she has to juggle working out with other responsibilities at home, she is proud of her achievement.
How I Started My Online Service Without Much Money
Although I have garnered a substantial following, this does not necessarily translate directly into income.
Starting my online presence wasn’t the hard part. The hard part was putting myself out there as a business.
There are a lot of courses out there that require you to pay through the nose for digital marketing. But I didn’t have the capital for that.
So I asked myself, “How can I start an online service without spending much money?”
After some thought, here’s what I did:
- I stopped watching motivational videos, reading books, and listening to podcasts.
- I started a simple no-frills online service. I didn’t even have a website. I have never conducted a zoom meeting with my prospects. Interested buyers simply pay me on the spot.
- Direct messaging strangers and following up with prospects didn’t work for me. Instead, I accidentally created my own “magnetic” approach. When people find me on Instagram, they get exposed to my content, and they send me DMs to inquire. I achieved this by posting before-and-after shots of my clients on Instagram. I let the results speak for itself. I don’t hard sell. (This strategy makes up 50% of my profit).
- How about the other 50% of my profit? I achieved this through “System/flow”: I pinpoint the market that has a need and curated my content for them. I observed how customers find me and how they end up paying me. Once I figured that out, my profit has been consistent.
To operate the service I provide, my only expenses were my phone bills… and, of course — taxes.
Sustaining an online business means you’ll have slow and fast months.
Picture: Some of the 200+ students that Taufiq has trained from home without a website or any video calls. They come from all walks of life, from teachers to entrepreneurs, doctors, and many more.
When it comes to owning a business, you’ll get stretches of high income and stretches of low income.
As an example, as of 4th June, my profit was RM2700, but for the next 5 straight days, I didn’t get any payments. That was the longest stretch of quiet I’ve had so far in 2021.
While I was feeling down from being without my usual payments every other day, I decided to stop focusing on that emotion and do other things:
- I took morning walks with my son
- I sent cakes to all my siblings
- I messaged some of my old friends (including those that tak layan me)
- I took the time to do the activities that lift up my spirituality/faith
- I spent quality time chatting with my wife before bed
All while still focusing on my daily business hustle.
Suddenly, for the past few days, there has been a sudden inflow of payments. Clients who would normally take weeks to make a decision paid me on the very same day. The weirdest inquiry that I suspected would never convert into a sale paid me on the spot.
Picture: Nisa is 37 years old and a mother of three. She is also a doctor. Before she met Taufiq, she did not watch her health and was an emotional eater. Now, Taufiq has taught her a stress-free way of watching her health.
Now, I’ve passed the RM10K mark in my profit and I’m on track to make RM20K in the month of June.
Honestly, this is not the first time this has happened to me — when business was slow for some time and suddenly shot up.
I Strongly believe that anyone can start their own service — right now
Picture: This lady is a PCOS survivor and wishes to remain anonymous for now. She has been trying to conceive for 6 years, so she resolved to watch her health. She lost 7 kgs in 3 months!
I shifted my focus from finding passion to monetizing my existing skills. For now, I don’t really need passion to make me happy because knowing how to make money makes me a lot happier.
And so, I’m a lot happier now.
I strongly believe that anyone can start their own service — even if you don’t have the same skills I do.
For example, you can teach a mandarin class through a zoom call and get paid for it through an online transfer.
The benefit? Instant profit.
Your cost? Your existing phone and internet bill.
What about effort? Try reaching out to prospects and strategically sell to them without annoying them.
Do you need anything fancy, like a website? Maybe later. For now, just langgar first.
If you are clueless and unsure about what to do, then allow me to say this: you already have what it takes to make money or change the world. All you have to do is use your existing strength. Start really small. Improve as you go.
This pandemic taught me that if you are teachable, you can start making money online without high initial cost
Picture: “Can’t find the motivation to exercise? Then YouTube workouts are for you. Have some coffee and jump in; you’ll be thankful afterwards. You reap what you sow, so don’t wait for motivation.”
It might not be your passion but if it’s something you’re good at, as long as there is a demand, it could be all you need.
My message to those who have taken the path of starting their own business:
- Manage your risk. Don’t go all in at once.
- Quiet times may happen but don’t feel defeated. Ease comes after every hardship. Remember, the good times can happen again as long as you repeat the formula that has been making you money.
- Money is important, but don’t leave out the other important things in your life.
I know the struggle of making money and I really hope that no one has to go through it. I wish everyone the best.
That’s my story and thank you for reading.
Follow Taufiq on Instagram: www.instagram.com/yourbrotaufiq
For more stories like this, read: How This Pilot, Fashion Designer, And Engineer Started An Online Business and Fathima And Anis Started An Online Boutique Hello Daisy With Only RM300. Now They Sell To 10 Different Countries.
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